Peach allergens, childhood asthma highlight EAACI congress research

The development of food allergy involving peach allergens and early prevention of asthma are among research topics to be presented at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology annual congress that opens Saturday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“The scientific program … will be more forward thinking and innovative than ever before, and we expect participants to return home with new skills for treating their patients, new ideas and inspiration for research,” Nikolaos G. Papadopoulos, MD, PhD, EAACI president, said in a press release.

Nikolaos G. Papadopoulos

The EAACI congress, June 7-11, will feature different aspects related to allergy, considered the most common chronic disease in Europe. Treatment methods including immunotherapy, plus areas focusing on dermatology and pediatrics also will be presented. More than 300 doctors and researchers from 40 countries are expected to present research.

EAACI also plans to launch the first Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Guidelines in Europe at the congress.

The food allergy study, conducted at the Centre for Biotechnology and Plant Genomics of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, examined the capacity of a food allergen from peaches to cross the intestinal barrier. The interaction between the protein Pru p 3, the main peach allergen, and the intestinal epithelium was investigated, with a focus on the kinetics of transport and cell response it produces, the release said.

“The results obtained represent a step toward clarifying the importance of Pru p 3 as a sensitizer,” researcher Cristina Gomez Casado, PhD, said in the release. “The follow-up carried out on this protein brings us a better understanding of the way in which food allergies develop, which can help in the development of specific treatment of such allergies.”

In the study of early asthma prevention, data from 341 children aged 4 weeks to 7 years showed those aged 7 years with asthma “had developed increased airway resistance before 3 years of age, independent of neonatal lung function.”

“Our data suggest that the lung function deficit associated with asthma develops in the first 3 years of life, and future research should therefore focus on this critical period,”researcherHans Bisgaard, DMSci, MD, Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, said in the release.